The parents of a murdered teenager who were arrested in connection with her disappearance have denied trying to force her into an arranged marriage.

Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed said claims that their 17-year-old daughter Shafilea was killed after refusing an arranged marriage were unfounded.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Ahmed, a 44-year-old taxi driver, from Warrington, Cheshire, said he would never have forced his daughter to marry against her will.

Mr Ahmed said reports that his daughter had deliberately swallowed bleach in protest at a planned arranged marriage were also false.

He also denied he was a strict father and said he even bought his daughter Western-style clothes.

Last week officers investigating the disappearance of Shafilea launched a murder hunt after discovering her badly-decomposed body.

Shortly after the discovery, Mr and Mrs Ahmed, who are currently on police bail after following their arrest in December on suspicion of their daughter's kidnapping, issued a statement through their solicitor accusing Cheshire Police of "ethnic stereotyping".

Shafilea disappeared on September 11 only a few hours after her parents had picked her up from the Warrington call centre where she worked.